CHORON, Sandra (Zena Samelson) 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born March 10, 1950, in New York, NY; daughter of Kalman (a tailor) and Fay (a tailor; maiden name: Rabinowitz) Samelson; married Harry Choron (a graphic designer), 1972; children: Casey. Education: Lehman College (Bronx, NY), B.A., 1971. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—4 Myrtle St., Haworth, NJ 07641. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, literary agent, designer, and book packager. March Tenth, Inc., Haworth, NJ, founder and president, 1981—. Worked as an editor at Hawthorn Books and Dell Publishing. Founding editor, Rock & Rap Confidential newsletter. Instructor, Lehman College, 1998.

MEMBER:

American Book Producers Association (member of board of directors, 1983-84), American Society of Journalists and Authors.

WRITINGS:

(Adapter from the screenplay by John Hughes) National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Dell Publishing (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Edward Malca) Everybody's Investment Book: How to Invest Up to 5,000 Dollars Even If You Don't Have It, Bantam (New York, NY), 1984.

(With Dave Marsh and Debbie Geller) Rocktopicon: Unlikely Questions and Their Surprising Answers, Contemporary Books (Chicago, IL), 1984.

The Big Book of Kids' Lists, illustrated by John Lane, World Almanac Publications (New York, NY), 1985.

(Compiler, with Bob Oskam) Elvis!: The Last Word: The 328 Best (and Worst) Things Anyone Ever Said about "The King," Carol Publishing Group (Secaucus, NJ), 1991.

(With husband, Harry Choron) The Book of Lists for Kids, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 1995, revised edition published as The All-New Book of Lists for Kids, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 2002.

(With husband, Harry Choron) The Book of Lists for Teens, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Sasha Carr) The Caregiver's Essential Handbook: More than 1200 Tips to Help You Care For and Comfort the Seniors in Your Life, McGraw Hill (New York, NY), 2003.

The Book of College Lists, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sandra Choron's career is deeply intertwined with multiple aspects of books and publishing. A writer, literary agent, editor, book packager, and designer, Choron has written several works of her own and helped many high-profile clients publish their own books. She founded a literary agency called March Tenth, Inc., in 1981, and has represented more than 100 authors in a variety of subject areas, including reference, fiction, humor, and health. The agency has packaged more than 200 titles for both commercial publishers and individual clients. In addition, March Tenth, Inc., has created DVD and record packages for a number of prominent recording artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Shania Twain, Mark Knopfler, and Sting. Choron has also taught a college-level class in book production at Lehman College in New York City.

With her husband, Harry, Choron wrote The Book of Lists for Kids and The Book of Lists for Teens. The books provide trivia, history, lifestyle suggestions, and other focused lists covering topics of interest to young people and teenagers. In The Book of Lists for Kids, readers can find more than three hundred lists of statistics and facts covering problems and issues sometimes faced in childhood and adolescence, including such topics as ten things to do if you are afraid of the dark, six ways kids can help to change the world, and five ways to stop a nosebleed. The book also includes information on bike safety, lists of books banned from public schools, kids' legal rights, and information on how kids can fight censorship. There are also lists of topics intended for fun, including how to tell what is in a box of chocolates, listings of the twenty-five best U.S. amusement parks, seven ways to ward off Dracula, films featuring monster vegetables, and ten little-known things about Superman. The material in Choron's similar title The Big Book of Kids' Lists is "clearly written and often of merit," wrote Eva Elisabeth Von Ancken in School Library Journal. Kristiana Gregory, writing in Los Angeles Times, commented that "Readers ages seven to seventeen can gorge on trivia here and not feel flabby, for this isn't just junk trivia. Most of the facts here are worth digesting."

Similarly, The Book of Lists for Teens offers a "captivating collection of tips, advice, opinions, and more, both silly and serious," intended for teenagers and young adults, wrote Paula Rohrlick in Kliatt. The lists are grouped in chapters covering overall topics such as school, relationships, entertainment, facts, the world at large, and personal issues. There are lists of suggestions for solving problems that many teenagers face, such as nine ways to defeat bullies, twenty organizations that work with the problems of young people, twenty-eight ideas to fight prejudice, and eleven ways to share bad news with parents. Lighter topics include twelve steps to forming a band, twenty popular songs of the 1990s, and ten notable hip-hop albums. "Filled with trivia, facts, and fun, this book inspires, informs, and entertains," wrote Elaine Baran Black in School Library Journal.

"No one in my family was surprised that books became my passion in life; 'book' was the first word I ever uttered, and as a child, I had no better friends than the many volumes I was encouraged to take out of the library each week," Choron told CA. "As an adult, I have been lucky enough to be able to submerge myself in every aspect of the book world: I'm an agent, a writer, a book designer, and a lover of information. Working on The Book of Lists for Kids and The Book of Lists for Teens, I was able to combine so many of the skills I had acquired in my publishing career, including research and consulting, plus it gave me a chance to organize the hundreds of ideas I had for these books. I think list-making can be a valuable tool for young readers (and older ones, too!) in that the process gives us a chance to catalog our thoughts, define subjects, and keep track of a world that's changing faster than ever."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kliatt, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Book of Lists for Teens, p. 40.

Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1985, Kristiana Gregory, review of The Big Book of Kids' Lists, p. B6.

Publishers Weekly, March 22, 1985, review of The Big Book of Kids' Lists, p. 57; June 3, 2002, review of The All-New Book of Lists for Kids, p. 90.

School Library Journal, February, 1986, Eva Elisabeth Von Ancken, review of The Big Book of Kids' Lists, p. 82; January, 2003, Elaine Baran Black, review of The Book of Lists for Teens, p. 152.*